Samus gave me an idea for this thread.

What's your favorite game/s that you rented unknowingly and ended up falling in love with, addicted to, or otherwise meaningfully attached to? Stories from "back in the day" are welcome.

I know off the top of my head I can think of some gems that I picked up in the rental stores. They include:

NARC (NES)
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES) - I freaking LOVE this game!
The Lost Vikings (SNES)
The Last Ninja (NES) - I didn't actually like this one but my friend thought it was cool

Emulator Pickups:

Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Rock and Roll Racing (NES I think)
there's one more I was going to put here but I can't think of it now... it's gonna come back to me after this post I bet.

I used to rent California Games for NES all the time. I don't know why I didn't just buy it, I rented it so many times. I rented Ocarina of Time shortly after it came out. I wasn't really expecting anything great. I wasn't into the Zelda series at all. The last one I had played was Zelda 2 several years prior. Anyway, I rented it and fell in love with the game and the series.

i remember renting CA games a few times.

the game i rented the most was some game for genesis. i think it was "wonder boy in moster world". it was a side-scroller game where you earn items like in zelda. even though it was just a par game, i think i rented it so many times cause i didn't want to go empty handed.

I tried California Games too. Think I only did that once though. It was ok for me. There was also this similar one called Skate or Die, which I actually ended up buying, but I think I first played it as a rental.

Baldur's Gate II: Dark Aliance for PS2.

I ended up buying it the day my rental was due back.

That's easy...Batman Rise of Sin Tzu and Custom Robo.....

I rented them so much that the manager of Blockbuster sold them to me real cheap..$5.00.

I allways rent the games I like before I buy them..

I remember Skate or Die. I think one of my friends had it.

California Games was great if you had a couple other people to play with. I rented it pretty much every time a friend would sleep over, and my sister always wanted to play it with us. I just remember us laughing so hard at some of the stuff. Like the hacky sack event. Man, those were good times. I miss being a kid.

i rented nfl street and bought it, lol. also spiderman 2, and dead to rights 1. it was better than the sequel.

my friend had skate or die, it was cool.

For me it is Chrono Trigger and Sim City. Chrono Trigger I wont go into, as it always brings me to tears of happiness when telling that story, but Sim City, I rented it, fell in love with it and didn't want to return it. I had it for over a week, it was an overnight game, and for ALL of those 7 days my snes was never turned off. Whenever I went to the shop, or HAD to go out, someone had to look after my city for me, I fell asleep with the dreamy city music and awoke to the gentle honk of the ships fog horn.

Of course I couldn't just let my rental cost build up too much, so I had to buy it ; )

Now THAT is hardcore.... or extremely stupid, one of the two.